Rep. William Aloysius Barrett

Former Representative for Pennsylvania’s 1^st District

Barrett was the representative for Pennsylvania’s 1^st congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1949 to 1976.

He was previously the representative for Pennsylvania’s 1^st congressional district as a Democrat from 1945 to 1946.

Bioguide

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Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Barrett is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1976 positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Barrett sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1973 to Oct 1, 1976. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Barrett was the primary sponsor of 1 bill that was enacted:

H.R. 8449 (93rd): Flood Disaster Protection Act

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Does 1 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Barrett sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Housing and Community Development (36%) Government Operations and Politics (17%) Energy (12%) Labor and Employment (8%) Economics and Public Finance (8%) Finance and Financial Sector (7%) Social Welfare (7%) Taxation (5%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Barrett recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1945 to Apr 1976, Barrett missed 841 of 5,620 roll call votes, which is 15.0%. This is much worse than the median of 8.7% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Apr 1976. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1945 Jan-Mar	27	2	7.4%	89^th
1945 Apr-Jun	40	2	5.0%	68^th
1945 Jul-Sep	12	2	16.7%	95^th
1945 Oct-Dec	22	3	13.6%	84^th
1946 Jan-Mar	34	0	0.0%	0^th
1946 Apr-Jun	53	3	5.7%	79^th
1946 Jul-Aug	43	1	2.3%	68^th
1949 Jan-Mar	35	1	2.9%	81^st
1949 Apr-Jun	27	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Jul-Sep	43	3	7.0%	57^th
1949 Oct-Oct	16	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Jan-Mar	54	8	14.8%	92^nd
1950 Apr-Jun	30	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Jul-Sep	59	2	3.4%	73^rd
1950 Dec-Dec	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Jan-Jan 81st Congress	4	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Jan-Mar	12	1	8.3%	85^th
1951 Apr-Jun	40	2	5.0%	67^th
1951 Jul-Sep	39	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Oct-Oct	18	0	0.0%	0^th
1952 Jan-Mar	22	3	13.6%	95^th
1952 Apr-Jun	40	2	5.0%	74^th
1952 Jul-Jul	10	0	0.0%	0^th
1953 Jan-Mar	13	1	7.7%	65^th
1953 Apr-Jun	28	7	25.0%	98^th
1953 Jul-Aug	30	1	3.3%	67^th
1954 Jan-Mar	14	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Apr-Jun	24	2	8.3%	69^th
1954 Jul-Aug	38	2	5.3%	79^th
1955 Jan-Mar	21	0	0.0%	0^th
1955 Apr-Jun	36	0	0.0%	0^th
1955 Jul-Aug	19	0	0.0%	0^th
1956 Jan-Mar	12	1	8.3%	86^th
1956 Apr-Jun	30	3	10.0%	88^th
1956 Jul-Jul	31	0	0.0%	0^th
1957 Jan-Mar	12	0	0.0%	0^th
1957 Apr-Jun	36	1	2.8%	77^th
1957 Jul-Aug	52	5	9.6%	94^th
1958 Jan-Mar	21	2	9.5%	94^th
1958 Apr-Jun	32	1	3.1%	62^nd
1958 Jul-Aug	40	1	2.5%	63^rd
1959 Jan-Apr	16	2	12.5%	94^th
1959 May-Aug	54	0	0.0%	0^th
1959 Sep-Sep	17	1	5.9%	80^th
1960 Feb-Apr	23	0	0.0%	0^th
1960 May-Aug	70	2	2.9%	80^th
1961 Jan-Apr	22	2	9.1%	97^th
1961 May-Aug	65	3	4.6%	77^th
1961 Sep-Sep	29	2	6.9%	77^th
1962 Jan-Mar	21	1	4.8%	65^th
1962 Apr-Jun	32	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Jul-Sep	49	1	2.0%	61^st
1962 Oct-Oct	22	1	4.5%	71^st
1963 Jan-Mar	9	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Apr-Jun	31	1	3.2%	61^st
1963 Jul-Sep	28	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Oct-Dec	50	4	8.0%	74^th
1964 Jan-Mar	26	1	3.8%	64^th
1964 Apr-Jun	34	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Jul-Sep	49	3	6.1%	76^th
1964 Oct-Oct	4	1	25.0%	79^th
1965 Jan-Mar	28	3	10.7%	59^th
1965 Apr-Jun	53	5	9.4%	49^th
1965 Jul-Sep	98	18	18.4%	83^rd
1965 Oct-Oct	22	3	13.6%	51^st
1966 Jan-Mar	30	8	26.7%	88^th
1966 Apr-Jun	51	9	17.6%	69^th
1966 Jul-Sep	72	17	23.6%	74^th
1966 Oct-Oct	40	12	30.0%	62^nd
1967 Jan-Mar	31	3	9.7%	91^st
1967 Apr-Jun	57	1	1.8%	47^th
1967 Jul-Sep	59	7	11.9%	95^th
1967 Oct-Dec	98	7	7.1%	90^th
1968 Jan-Mar	38	1	2.6%	59^th
1968 Apr-Jun	79	2	2.5%	52^nd
1968 Jul-Sep	91	7	7.7%	71^st
1968 Oct-Oct	25	7	28.0%	80^th
1969 Jan-Mar	16	3	18.8%	86^th
1969 Apr-Jun	28	6	21.4%	78^th
1969 Jul-Sep	45	6	13.3%	64^th
1969 Oct-Dec	88	27	30.7%	89^th
1970 Jan-Mar	35	9	25.7%	81^st
1970 Apr-Jun	74	23	31.1%	85^th
1970 Jul-Sep	76	19	25.0%	80^th
1970 Oct-Dec	81	26	32.1%	79^th
1971 Jan-Mar	22	7	31.8%	93^rd
1971 Apr-Jun	90	27	30.0%	93^rd
1971 Jul-Sep	74	10	13.5%	68^th
1971 Oct-Dec	134	75	56.0%	98^th
1972 Jan-Mar	64	10	15.6%	71^st
1972 Apr-Jun	114	9	7.9%	33^rd
1972 Jul-Sep	101	2	2.0%	13^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	6	12.0%	45^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	8	22.2%	83^rd
1973 Apr-Jun	191	24	12.6%	69^th
1973 Jul-Sep	131	7	5.3%	50^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	11	6.0%	41^st
1974 Jan-Mar	79	4	5.1%	31^st
1974 Apr-Jun	170	19	11.2%	53^rd
1974 Jul-Sep	148	15	10.1%	73^rd
1974 Oct-Dec	141	38	27.0%	89^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	22	32.4%	97^th
1975 Apr-Jun	199	44	22.1%	93^rd
1975 Jul-Sep	154	45	29.2%	96^th
1975 Oct-Dec	191	32	16.8%	88^th
1976 Jan-Mar	106	77	72.6%	99^th
1976 Apr-Jun	33	33	100.0%	99^th

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:

unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills